


Corrupted

by antiRePurp



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Ava the Dog, Gen, i'll add more tags when characters appear if i've forgotten to add them, she's the custom hero in this mess, this could be a little messy like i think i know what im doing but i also don't maybe? so yeah
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-05-15 00:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19284676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/antiRePurp/pseuds/antiRePurp
Summary: "A weapon that takes control of people's visual and depth perception to feed false information to the brain, creating a new reality for them. Like a dream so real, if you bump yourself in it, your sleeping self will bruise? It's hard to believe.""Corrupted" is a Sonic Forces rewrite focusing on the perspectives of Infinite the Jackal and a custom hero, Ava the Dog, as they experience the war that nearly destroyed the world as they knew it, and the weapon that caused it all: the Phantom Ruby. Though the story follows the source material rather closely several creative freedoms have been taken, such as adding in the Chaos Emeralds and removing Classic Sonic from the equation, instead replacing his misadventures with Tails Intermissions. The Phantom Ruby's power remains unchanged though, and is still as big of a threat as it was before. And its corruption is growing stronger...





	1. Zero

_“It’s a bad deal, boss.”_

_“It’s the only deal we’re getting.”_

_“You do know that we could just, oh I don’t know, bail out of this?”_

_“This time we can’t. He’d hunt us down, and we’d be as good as dead.”_

_“But I don’t want to fight for him! I have standards!”_

_“I know, I know! ...but for now we have to survive.”_

_“...you’ve changed, Zero.”_

_“It’s not me that’s changed. It’s the world.”_

  
***

  
“Hey, you! I know you can hear me!”

Infinite’s radio had picked up a signal. The jackal sliced another one of Eggman’s more aggressive robots in half with his knife and continued dashing through the jungle. He made a mental note to talk about re-calibrating the robots with Eggman. Having to fight both Eggman’s army and intruders at the same time just because the junkyard residents didn’t recognize the jackals as allies was getting ridiculous.

“You’re the captain of Squad Jackal, aren’t you!?”

Of course he was. He was THE Jackal Squad captain. The ultimate mercenary. Who else would he have been? Infinite jumped up on a tree branch, and continued his journey in the trees.

“Your squad was useless! Go clean up their mess already!”

The jackal’s ears perked.

“What do you mean, useless?” Infinite hissed.

“They were annihilated instantly is what I mean! You sure are a group of competent mercenaries, all right!”

Annihilated?

The Jackal Squad was... gone?

Infinite swallowed.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever...” He hastily shut off the radio and kept moving ahead. Maybe everyone had been right. Maybe working for Eggman had been a mistake. But what else could they have done? They were captured during their raid and were at the mercy of that old fool, had they not gone along they would’ve died then and there. Infinite had done the right decision. He must have. But...

The facility came into the jackal’s view. Infinite maneuvered his way across the watery chasm, kicking off speed from trees and the decorative poles to reach the other side. He landed onto a small hill next to the mountain Eggman’s research laboratory had been carved in. No one should’ve been able to reach that spot. No one except Infinite. And yet he had company.

A black hedgehog stood in the shadows, talking to someone over a communicator. This had to be the intruder. The intruder who was the reason Infinite’s team was...

The jackal gritted his teeth.

“I’ll show you why they call me the ultimate mercenary,” Infinite whispered to himself, and clenched the red knife in his hand. Without hesitation the jackal lunged towards his target, with only one goal in his mind. The only fate that intruder would ever deserve for the things he had done.

The hedgehog’s eyes quickly shifted on Infinite. But instead of showing fear, the intruder’s expression remained unchanged.

In a flash of red light he was gone, and Infinite nearly crashed onto the ground, just barely sticking the landing.

He looked around frantically, but the hedgehog was nowhere to be seen.

Within seconds a light flashed behind Infinite, and he was kicked into the air. The jackal let out an unintentional yelp. He didn’t have time to process what had taken place when he was kicked again, this time to the ground. Infinite hit it with a thud, his entire body burning with pain.

One last time the light flashed, and Infinite was kicked against a stone pillar near the facility’s opening.

The jackal fell to the ground. Every inch of his body was hurting. Infinite tried to get up, but the pain was too much for his body to handle. He looked up, and his eyes locked with the intruder’s.

The hedgehog was standing before him, his expression still exactly the same it had been less than a minute ago.

“Leave,” he spoke. “You have no stakes in this fight. So don’t bother with it.”

The intruder turned around, facing the front door of the facility.

“You’re better off not showing your face around here ever again.”

The now-familiar red light flashed once more, and the hedgehog was gone.

Infinite tried to pull himself off the ground.

He was shaking.

The jackal blinked, and stared at his shaking hand.

Fear. He was afraid.

He clenched his fist and slammed it to the ground.

“N-no... I’m... I can’t be...” he stuttered. No. He had to be stronger than this. He had to be stronger than this. He had promised to be stronger than this.

He couldn’t be weak. Not at a time like this.

Not when his squad was-

“I AM NOT WEAK!” Infinite screamed out, slamming his fists to the ground, tears running down his cheeks.

“I AM NOT WEAK! I AM NOT! I AM NOT WEAK!” he kept screaming. His trembling voice echoed in the woods, scaring off birds, but ultimately getting no response.

Infinite collapsed onto the ground. His body was shaking, and his breathing was ragged.

“I am... I’m not... I...”

Pathetic.

That’s all he was anymore.

***

_“...he’s not picking up.”_

_“...you don’t think he’s...?”_

_“...to be honest with you, I’m not sure if I care.”_

_“Wait, but he’s-”_

_“-not the guy he was when I joined his little team of mercenaries, no.”_

_“...”_

_“...I hate that you’re right.”_

_“Me too. But you guys saw him when he touched that stone. He’s been obsessed with it since. I bet it’s not even worth as much as he thinks it is.”_

_“I’d feel bad for leaving him at Eggman’s mercy, though...”_

_“He’s not at the doctor’s mercy. No. Zero’s on his side now.”_

_“...”_

_“And we’re better off without him.”_


	2. He Has Your Eyes

_“Here, take it.”_

_“...what’s this, a memory stick?”_

_“It contains all the data and information you need.”_

_“What kind of information?”_

_“Data and information on Shadow, Chaos, Metal Sonic, Zavok, et cetera et cetera.”_

_“Why would I need any of that?”_

_“Because your illusions are inaccurate, they’re not going to fool anyone, especially not Sonic. You need to do your homework.”_

_“I don’t see how your ancient text documents would help us change the world.”_

_“You’d be surprised, Infinite.”_

***

Red Bay City was in ruins.

People were running around frantically, screaming, crying, trying to escape. Buildings came down, spreading their concrete walls onto the sidewalks and roads. Soldiers ran in the midst of the chaos below, trying to hunt down the mercenary who had caused this.

Innocent people had died.

Infinite tried not to think about it.

He touched the mask covering his face, and the ruby on his chest emitted a faint glow. That’s right. He didn’t have to think about it. Not when he could bend the rules of reality.

People hadn’t died.

Even if they had, they deserved it. It’s not like there was much worth salvaging in this world, anyway.

“Infinite, get over here!”

The jackal snapped out of his thoughts, and picked up the call.

“I’ve got the trap prepared. Get yourself here right now!”

Without saying a word Infinite hung up. He looked around at the city below him. He could no longer see the people running for their dear lives.

All that remained were the Eggman robots, and Infinite’s little creatures, who ravaged the streets with all their might.

And everything was tinted red.

It didn’t take long for Infinite to spot the doctor in a small clearing. His robots were threatening some group of strangers.

Then the jackal saw him.

A blue blur moving at rapid speeds through the streets was approaching the clearing. And when he reached it, he proceeded to destroy every last one of Eggman’s trashcans in a matter of seconds. The bystanders cheered, and one of them, a fox kid, swiftly lead them out of the scene as the blue hero bantered with Eggman.

“Behold the power of my ultimate masterpiece!”

Eggman was talking about the ruby, not the jackal. Infinite knew it. Nevertheless he played along, and began descending down from the sky.

The blue hero jumped at Eggman, about to strike him.

For a brief moment Infinite debated if he should’ve let the situation happen. It’s not like Eggman could do anything to him. Infinite had the ruby. He had to power to make reality almost anything he wanted it to be. Eggman stood no chance against him.

And yet the jackal lunged an illusion at the hedgehog, who got knocked off course and hit the ground.

“Shadow?!” the hedgehog shouted out in confusion as he got up. Infinite smirked. It was perfect. His illusion was perfect.

He snapped his fingers, and made more little creatures appear.

Metal Sonic, Zavok, and a dark creature with glowing markings dropped to the ground. The blue hedgehog inhaled sharply.

“Wait, Zavok?! And Dark Gaia’s- What’s going on here?!” The hedgehog looked up at the sky, and Infinite descended to the ground, deciding to hover just inches above it. The blue savior smirked, and lunged at Infinite.

The jackal barely had to do a thing.

Sonic was not going to hit him. He never was.

And the next moment the hedgehog was standing behind him, realizing that his attack had just been dodged.

He turned around slowly, and looked straight at Infinite.

Eggman, who had simply enjoyed the show thus far, began cackling.

“Have fun while you still can, Sonic,” the doctor chuckled. “You’re not getting out of this alive.”

Sonic ignored the threat, focusing solely on Infinite.

“Tails,” he spoke, the previous almost comical exaggeration gone from his voice. “What’s his deal?”

“I-I don’t know!” the fox shouted from behind a chunk of concrete. “These readings are messed up, I can’t make anything out of this!”

Sonic didn’t respond.

Instead he took another lunge at Infinite at an even greater speed than before.

But the world was tinted red.

And as long as it was, Sonic wouldn’t be hitting Infinite.

Not a single time.

Instead, Infinite’s little creatures attacked Sonic without mercy. They tossed him around like a toy, slamming him against the ground and the concrete walls surrounding the area. The little fox behind the concrete chunk was getting more and more panicked with each passing second as Sonic was growing weaker. No matter how hard the hedgehog tried to fight back, he wasn’t landing any hits.

Of course, that was a little too good to last longer than a couple of moments.

Infinite’s dark creature, the one Sonic had referred to as a Dark Gaia of some kind, had noticed the fox boy. It started heading towards him, and lunged itself against the concrete chunk, aiming to ambush the fox.

Sonic didn’t hesitate for a moment.

Before Infinite had a chance to do anything, Sonic had broken free from the never ending trashing the jackal’s creatures were participating in. And he was heading straight for the monster approaching the fox.

But Sonic wouldn’t be able to hit him. The virtual reality concealed the whole area, and as long as it did, Sonic couldn’t touch his enemies.

Infinite then realized.

Sonic jumped against the concrete fence behind the fox’s hiding spot, and jumped against the dark creature’s attack.

The impact knocked him back against the bricks

and the hedgehog fell to the ground.

 He wasn’t moving.

“S-Sonic?” the fox stuttered. Infinite raised his eyebrow, and started descending.

Sonic twitched. His body began shaking as he tried to pull himself off the ground. But he wasn’t going to get up anymore. He knew it himself.

“T-Tails...” Sonic uttered. “...run...”

The next second the blue hero’s body went limp as he passed out on the ground.

“Sonic!” the fox yelled out. Infinite kept staring at the hedgehog. He couldn’t move. He tried to process the events that had just occurred, and hated everything he could think of it.

The fox turned around, looked at Infinite for a second.

His eyes were full of fear.

Infinite grabbed hold of his mask again, adjusting it, and causing the ruby on his chest emit red light. He hadn’t seen those eyes.

Those fearful eyes of a child

who had just lost someone very important to him

because he was weak.

“Oh ho ho! It worked! Oh it worked!” Eggman snapped the jackal out of his misery. Infinite looked at the spot where the fox had been hiding just a moment ago. The kid had left, and Sonic had been taken by Eggman’s robots, who now victoriously held the hedgehog in their metallic arms.

“Oh I could get used to this!” Eggman laughed. “And I will, because with Sonic out of the way there’s no one who could possibly stop us!”

Infinite adjusted his mask.

His illusions disappeared, but the red tint around the area remained.

Reality still had to be altered, at least for a moment.


	3. Soldier

_“Don’t bother knocking, I’m up here.”_

_“Nice balcony. You’re that G.U.N. soldier, right?”_

_“I was one, yeah.”_

_“Well I’ve got a job for you.”_

_“Trust me, croc, I’m not the guy you want.”_

_“Trust me, lady, we’re not picky.”_

_“There’s a reason I was fired, and it’s not a pretty one. I shouldn’t be on the battlefield. End of conversation. Thanks for the offer.”_

_“...think about it. I’ll leave you my card.”_

_“...”_

_“We’ve heard good things about you, Ava. Excellent things.”_

_“People change, croc.”_

***

The hallway was lit by fluorescent lights, yet the dark walls made it seem like it wasn’t. The place in general was rather dank, but seeing as it was underground and built years and years ago it wasn’t too uncharacteristic of it. A yellow dog with pointy ears, wearing a brown jumpsuit, sat on a bench under one of the buzzing lights. Her eyes were a deep red, shining like two rubies. Ava exhaled deeply, and shifted herself on the bench. She had arrived the Resistance’s headquarters about 20 minutes ago. She had been expecting to find an army of people at the bunker, but in all honesty the place was hauntingly empty. Some guy had welcomed her and given her instructions to “the captain’s room,” but aside from them she hadn’t seen anyone. Sure, Eggman had taken over a majority of the world in the past six months, and majority of the people had given in, but still...

The edges of her vision started wavering, and tinting to red. Ava frowned. She was too tired to deal with this right now.

She took out her MP3 player and hit shuffle as her vision began glitching.

Jack Stauber - Buttercup.

The glitch calmed down a bit as the song started playing. Ava sighed.

She had almost, just barely, forgotten about the corruption, as she so lovingly referred to it.

Perhaps today was a better day than she had thought.

Way better than the fiasco that had occurred two months ago. Back when she was working for G.U.N, when the organization wasn’t completely taken over by Eggman.

Ava no longer remembered the name of the city she and her team had been sent to. But she did remember the adversary that was destroying the place. He called himself Infinite. And turns out he wasn’t just some pushover, like Ava had initially figured.

Her entire team was knocked out within a minute. Ava had been furious, and fought her way through the enemies and Eggman robots, straight to the canine. Ava had managed to strike him... but at the cost of him grabbing hold of her.

At that moment her entire world fell apart.

Ava... couldn’t recall what exactly had taken place. She remembered the pain, it had been too much for her, so much that she started screaming. She was dropped soon after, and passed out. The next thing she remembered was waking up at the emergency room back at G.U.N. HQ.

Her entire vision was tinted red, shattered, corrupted. The headaches wouldn’t stop. Ava kept having auditory hallucinations, intrusive thoughts, and short-term memory loss.

No one knew what was wrong with her. No one knew how to help her.

Her team had told her it was going to be alright, they’d stand by her no matter what happened.

Ava was fired for incompetence soon after the incident.

Her team members never even said goodbye.

Ava exhaled, snapping out of her thoughts. She skipped the end of the song and moved on to the next one.

Oliver Tree - Miracle Man.

It sure was a miracle that she was sitting in that hallway, all right.

A couple of weeks earlier she had been approached by someone from the resistance. Vector, according to his business card, anyway. He offered Ava a position in the resistance. She of course had denied the offer at first. Why would anyone in their right mind hire a broken mess of a soldier to fight for them?

Ava had changed her mind, though. If they truly wanted her they might as well have her. The world wasn’t going to save itself, after all.

Ava smirked. If only her so-called teammates could see her now.

“Ableists...” she muttered, and threw a piece of nicotine gum in her mouth. She wasn’t about to smoke indoors. Not that she should’ve smoked to begin with.

Perhaps it was better that she no longer worked in the military.

The only door in the hallway opened, and a red echidna stepped out. Ava paused her music and put away the MP3 player.

“Good, good, you’re here,” the echidna said, skipping greetings altogether. “Sorry to make you wait, we had a lot to talk about.”

“It’s fine,” Ava assured. Her other eye twitched once. The music was gone, and the corruption was making its home in the dog’s vision again. The timing was impeccable.

The echidna gestured Ava to enter the room. She stepped inside after him, and took a look around the room.

A huge screen took over the wall on the other side of the room. Various crates and boxes decorated the rest of the room, along with concrete rubble that was spread around the floor. Some pipes ran along the brick walls, and the familiar fluorescent light shone light into the place, along with the giant, wall-mounted screen.

In the middle of the room stood a table sporting a couple of extra monitors and keyboards, and it was surrounded by five other people, who Ava assumed to be members of the resistance. She recognized one of them as the crocodile who had visited her earlier.

“Alright, introductions, let’s make this quick,” the echidna said as he clapped together his hands. “I’m Knuckles, the captain, I tend to lead missions when I can, and this is-”

“Charmy Bee!” the kid shouted out, and enthusiastically flew over to Ava to forcefully shake her hand. “What’s your name?”

“Ava,” the dog replied, not sure how to react to the presence of a child. She knew this place was nowhere near as professional as G.U.N, but a child soldier...?

“Charmy, you’re making her uncomfortable,” a chameleon scolded the bee. “Espio. Good to have you here, miss.”

Miss. Still a strange word to be called by.

Ava looked over at the crocodile.

“Don’t think we need to introduce ourselves, do we?” Vector smiled.

“Oh, you’ve met before?” a white hedgehog asked. “When?”

“Who do you think recruited her, the wind?” the crocodile laughed. The hedgehog scratched his head, clearly embarrassed about his question.

“O-oh. Well, I’m Silver. It’s nice to meet you.”

“And I’m Amy,” the last member at the table said with a smile. Ava looked at everyone again. Aside from Vector everyone must’ve been a teen, or a child in the bee’s case. Not that she was terribly old herself, 22 was nothing, but the situation was still ever so strange to her. Everyone she used to work with had been so much older, the youngest people had been in their early twenties, and even that was rare. But the resistance was seemingly constructed of nothing but children.

The corruption wavered at the edges of Ava’s vision. Nothing like this should’ve ever happened. These children shouldn’t be fighting a war. They should be living their childhoods, having experiences, growing up.

Ava clenched her fist as her vision began tinting red. She would do this. So these kids didn’t have to.

“Nice to meet you all,” she said, flashing a brief smile. “Is there anything I can help with right now?”

“As a matter of fact...” Amy turned at one of the monitors on the table. “There’s a cargo train that’s taking supplies to Eggman’s army. It’s scheduled to run through Chemical Plant this afternoon. It’s nothing that urgent, but it would be nice if it, oh I don’t know, drifted off the tracks and blew up, trashing all of the cargo and rendering it unusable?”

Ava smiled. She liked the hedgehog, she seemed fun.

“I can do that, it’s no big deal,” Ava smiled. “Do you guys have any weapons I could borrow?”

“Oh, yeah, one of our friends has been working on these...” Knuckles said and started rummaging one of the crates. “What did he call them, they’re, uhh...”

“Wispons?” Silver helped.

“Yes!” Knuckles shouted out victoriously as he pulled one out of the crate. Ava raised her eyebrow. The weapon... or wispon, looked strange. It was shaped like a lightning bolt. She had been expecting something like a gun, or a pistol, but in a way it made more sense for this weird group of kids to have funnily shaped inventions instead.

Knuckles handed the wispon to Ava.

“It’s got a trigger and a button,” the echidna explained. “I uh, I’m not sure what exactly these things do, I don’t really use them myself, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out as you go.”

“Does it need ammo?” Ava asked.

“No, no, it uses this weird, um, what’s it called again...”

“Wisp energy,” Amy butted in. “The wispon ingests it from its surroundings. I’m not sure about the specifics, but as far as I’ve understood wispons don’t really run out of energy, and you can keep using them as you please.”

“That’s handy,” Ava blinked. Why wasn’t G.U.N. investing into technology like this? Well, it’s not like they were going to invest into anything for a while, not until the war was over anyway.

“Chemical Plant is to the north of here,” Espio explained. “Don’t worry, you can’t miss it. The place is huge.”

Ava gave the chameleon a lazy salute.

“Roger that. I’ll do my best.”

Her vision glitched out for a moment as she walked out of the room.

Yeah. Ava could do it. She could take down a large cargo train all by herself.

Ava. The failure of a soldier, whose brain didn’t work like it should have anymore.

No way this was going to be a disaster, right?


	4. Back to the Holler

Espio had been right. Chemical Plant would’ve been hard to miss.

The facility was located on the coast, standing over the ocean a good distance away from the shore. The water didn’t seem polluted, but considering Eggman was in charge of the facility Ava wouldn’t have been surprised at all if the place was spewing toxins into the depths below. The place was massive, too, sporting enough room to launch space shuttles from. It was like a city hovering above the water level, a thought that was further enforced by the train tracks that bridged their way through the facility.

Ava was running along a bridge leading into Chemical Plant. It wasn’t the stealthiest way in, but Ava didn’t have time to sneak her way inside. She had a train to catch. Ava took out her MP3 player and shuffled her playlist again, attempting to keep the corruption at bay.

Modest Mouse - Poison the Well.

She shot her grappling hook from her wristband, hitting a steel beam above the bridge, and pulled herself to the air.

Ava took a swift look at the world below.

She saw the train tracks, heading deeper into the facility, and into a specific building. It didn’t seem to be too far away from Ava’s current location.

With another shot of the grapple hook Ava pulled herself on top of a building, and started running ahead. Her vision wavered.

Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t been doing... this, since the incident.

Ava had no idea how her brain would react to this. The thought was unnerving.

But it was too late to turn back now.

The end of the roof arrived, and Ava jumped off with haste, looking for a suitable target to hook on.

The near distance started wavering with a red glow.

Ava’s eyes widened.

She remembered that light.

Instead of aiming at another rooftop like she had originally planned, Ava shot her hook to a support beam closer to the ground. Within seconds she was grounded again, and began running towards the building where the train tracks lead to.

She wasn’t about to duel with that adversary again, especially at a time like this.

Paying no mind to her surroundings, and attempting to ignore the corruption spreading from the edges of her vision, Ava dashed past various buildings, toxic waste containers, lone support beams and other trash that inhabited Chemical Plant. The only thing the dog was paying any mind to was her music, and the red glow in the distance.

After a few moments Ava reached the end of the platform housing the first area of Chemical Plant. She looked around. There was another platform, and above it ran the bridge that housed the train tracks. A drop of sweat rolled across her temple as she estimated the distance between the platforms. How was she supposed to get across? There was nothing she could hook on to.

Her fist clenched around the wispon in her right hand.

It had to have some kind of electric abilities, judging by the way it looked, and the faint static dancing on it’s surface. Ava pulled the trigger, and a line of electricity shot out, much like a whip. She tried the button, and the static around the wispon intensified. There had to be some way to utilize the functions. Ava looked around for something, anything, that could react to electricity somehow.

She looked up.

Power lines. Running from the first platform to the one in the distance.

Ava smirked.

She shot her grapple hook upwards, hooking onto a support beam above the power lines, and pulled herself up. As she was on the same level with the power lines, she pulled the trigger on her wispon.

Electricity shot out, and clung on to the power line.

Ava jumped off the roof, and pressed the button. The wispon began to spark, and the whip of electricity started to redact back into it. It was stuck to the power line, though, and Ava hadn’t let go of the trigger. Instead the wispon clung against the power line with such force and velocity it was enough to propel Ava onwards, along the lines and towards the second platform.

Perhaps these wispons were more useful than any gun in the world.

After a moment Ava had gotten close enough to hook onto a support beam on the other platform, and she flung herself onto another rooftop, continuing her run towards the train tracks that loomed in the distance. Ava looked around. The red glow she had seen earlier had disappeared. Maybe she had been imagining it? Maybe it had just been another trick from the corruption?

She didn’t have time to think about it. She had arrived to the bridge with the train tracks.

And the train was on schedule.

It was running past the building Ava was standing on. The dog didn’t hesitate for a second. She shot off her grapple hook again, hooked onto the train, and pulled herself on top of it. The speed the train was traveling at made it hard for Ava to keep her balance, and she couldn’t stand up.

All she had to do now was plant a bomb on the thing, and set it off from a safe distance. No big deal.

She placed down the bomb, and set the timer.

The edges of her vision started to waver suddenly, aggressively, way worse than it had so far.

Ava blinked, and a drop of sweat rolled across her temple once again.

She had to get off this train.

She had to get off this train right now.

Before she could find a proper spot to hook on to, a splitting pain rushed through her head. Ava shrieked, holding her head, her eyes shut tight. She collapsed onto the roof of the train, next to her bomb, unable to move nor think. The pain was too much.

She tried to open her eyes.

Her pupils shrank.

The train was about to enter a building. And the opening was just barely big enough for the train to enter in.

Ava tried to pull herself up. She was shaking, the corruption spreading across her vision, blurring it red. The bomb was going to detonate from the impact with the tunnel. Ava had to get off the train.

She shot her grapple hook without looking.

It just had to hook onto something. Anything.

Ava felt the wire tighten. She opened her eyes as much as she could.

The tunnel was right there.

 

  
The seconds that followed felt like hours. Ava pulled herself up, barely lifting herself into the air. The bomb collided with the tunnel, and detonated. The explosion started to spread, and Ava kept moving across the air, towards an unknown target, that hopefully was far enough from the explosion. She could feel the heat of the explosion right behind her, but could hardly focus on it, as the corruption and pain had taken over her mind.

Ava blacked out for a moment, unable to fight the pain.

She woke up as she collided with a support beam, and fell onto the roof of a building underneath it.

Not only did her head hurt, Ava’s body was now aching too.

She lied down on the roof, waiting for the pain to pass. She could keep her eyes open now, and watched the air fill with smoke from the explosion. Faintly, from underneath the pain and the ringing in her ears, she could hear alarms going off.

A minute passed.

Ava slowly pulled herself off the ground, and grabbed her wispon.

Her vision was still tinted red, and the corruption was there, but the pain had become manageable again.

Ava looked around. The wreckage of the train and the tunnel it had entered were behind her, and some robots were panicking next to it. No one had noticed her yet.

She wanted to keep it that way.

Ava put on her earphones, and hit shuffle on her MP3 player.

Mitski - Nobody.

She smirked as she saw the song’s title.

Ava shoved the MP3 player back into her pocket, shot off her grapple hook again, and began traveling back to the HQ.

Hopefully no one would ask her how the mission went.


	5. The Servers Are The Seven Chaos

Ava hadn’t told the team at the HQ the details of her mission. The train had blown up, and that’s all that mattered. Everyone had been pleased with the results, Amy in particular, who seemingly had a stronger vendetta against Eggman than anyone else in the crew.

The next morning everyone had gathered into the monitor room, communication room, whatever one wanted to call it. Ava was resting on the couch, listening to her music, while Amy, Knuckles, and Silver buzzed around the smaller monitors, Espio leaned against the wall near the door, and Charmy zoomed around the room full of energy as usual. Vector was out, probably on a mission of some kind, or maybe he was just fetching more food. Both possibilities were just as believable.

“Anything new on the Death Egg?” Silver asked. Ava’s ear perked, as her music was low enough for her to hear the conversations in the room. Death Egg?

“Still just floating out there, doing it’s thing,” Amy replied. “Whatever that thing is...”

“What’s the Death Egg?” Ava interrupted the conversation.

“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know,” Knuckles scratched his head. “It’s this... spherical space station, thing, Amy has a picture of it I think?”

“Yeah, Rouge got a good shot of it,” Amy smiled, typed some stuff on the computer in front of her, and projected a picture of the Death Egg on the huge monitor on the wall. Ava blinked.

It looked absolutely ridiculous.

“It’s... shaped like Eggman?” she asked.

“Did you expect anything else from that soggy omelet?” Knuckles smirked.

“He always shapes his robots and inventions and stuff after him!” Charmy explained with enthusiasm. “He’s silly like that!”

Ava smiled at the bee’s energetic outburst.

“What does it do, then?” she continued on the topic.

“See that’s the thing, it’s been up there for six months and we still don’t know what purpose it serves,” Silver answered. “We would’ve investigated it by now of course, but getting on that thing is a challenge in it’s own right...”

“Speaking of which...” Knuckles turned to Amy. “Could you do the Chaos energy check?”

“Aye aye, captain,” Amy smiled, and turned to her monitor. A couple of clicks later the large monitor began to display what looked like a heat map of the coastal area.

There was a small swirl above the ocean glowing in warm colors.

“It’s here!” Knuckles exclaimed. “It’s here! Angel Island is here!”

“But Tails is out,” Espio butted in. “He still hasn’t found Team Dark.” Knuckles’ joy was short lived, and he pounded his fist against the table, making the keyboards and monitors jump a bit.

“Dangit!” he yelled out. “The first time in six months Angel Island has floated this close to us and Tails isn’t here! Aagh!”

Ava raised her eyebrow in confusion. She wasn’t following any of this at all.

“...Angel Island?” she asked carefully.

“Home of the Master Emerald,” Amy answered. “We’ve been trying to locate it for a while to maybe get some insight to where the Chaos Emeralds could be at. Our radar can only get a hold of large amounts of Chaos energy, like the Master Emerald, but the Chaos Emeralds don’t emit as much power and thus don’t get picked up.”

“If we had the Chaos Emeralds we could take care of Eggman easily,” Espio explained. “But alas, they never seem to be around when you need them the most...”

“And this Tails person? Why’s he so important?” Ava continued with her inquiries.

“He’s the only one of us who knows how to fly a plane,” Knuckles muttered. “Tails could easily fly all of us to Angel Island, and we could get our hands on the Master Emerald, and -”

Knuckles froze for a moment.

“...and he could fly us to Sky Sanctuary and I could warp us to the Death Egg and OOH I HATE THIS!” Knuckles punched the wall next to him, causing the whole base to shake. Ava flinched as the echidna’s fist collided with the concrete. She had never seen an echidna this powerful. Heck, she had never seen an echidna to begin with prior to coming here...

“How are we meant to get on the Death Egg now without attracting unwanted attention?!” Knuckles lamented and began pacing around the room in his agitation. He had barely taken a few steps when a sky blue light surrounded him, and picked him up into the air. Everyone turned to look at Silver, whose eyes were glowing as he smiled.

“I can fly us up there. Well, levitate, not fly per say,” he laughed a bit. Knuckles blinked.

“Silver you are a gift,” he sighed. The hedghog smirked.

“I know, I’m great.”

“Well who’s gonna go up to the Death Egg?” Amy brought the conversation back to the topic at hand.

“I can do it!” Charmy gasped, but Espio shook his head.

“You are absolutely not going, Charmy,” the chameleon sighed.

“Aww I never get to do anything fun!”

“I could go, but taking us all the way to Angel Island will be draining,” Silver admitted. “Also, I don’t think I can carry more than two people along with myself. It’s a bit of a distance, after all.”

“I’ll go,” Knuckles offered.

“Knuckles, you’re our captain, we need you down here preferably,” Amy reminded him. “And apparently this whole Resistance is going to fall down if I don’t keep myself grounded, too.”

“Well, you ARE the mom friend,” Silver said. Amy shook her head.

“I assure you, if you guys knew how to take care of yourselves I would 100% be out there kicking Eggman’s butt to next Wednesday,” she sassed her friend. Ava smirked. This girl had the kind of attitude she loved.

“I can go,” Ava suggested. “Unless you have something better for me to do?”

The others looked at each other. No one seemed to have any objections to Ava’s suggestion.

“Okay, cool, you’ll go up and investigate the Death Egg,” Knuckles nodded. “I’ll have to come with you and Silver to get you onto Angel Island and up to space, though.”

“As long as you come back so I don’t have to deal with everything myself,” Amy agreed.

“I’m not a child, Amy.”

“You’re 16.”

“Well you’re 12!”

“And for some reason I have to be the one who takes all the responsibility around here now that Rouge isn’t present,” Amy reminded Knuckles. The echidna opened his mouth to say something back to her, but couldn’t figure out anything snarky enough. He turned away with an annoyed huff.

“Let’s go, Silver, Ava,” he muttered as he walked out the door. Silver and Ava exchanged a look, smirking at each other a bit, and rushed after their captain.

  
***

  
“We’re getting closer, I can feel it,” Knuckles informed Ava and Silver. The three were flying, or levitating, above the ocean near the coast of Red Bay. Ava had never experienced anything like that before, nor had she ever met anyone with telekinetic powers. It’s almost as if the power surrounding her body was calming down the corruption in her mind, as her vision was the clearest it had been since the incident.

Ava looked around. Besides the city behind them, and the ocean underneath, she couldn’t see this island they were heading towards, which supposedly was meant to be floating in the air. And close by, too, if Knuckles was to be believed. But where was it?

“Okay, here we go,” Knuckles interrupted Ava’s thoughts, and rubbed his hands together. He cleared his throat.

“The servers are the Seven Chaos!” the echidna yelled out.

“Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart!”

Ava blinked. There was something about Knuckles’ voice that sounded... different. It was almost divine in some way.

“The Controller is the one that unifies the Chaos!”

The air ahead of the trio started acting weird. It was twisting and turning, bending the horizon behind it. Ava blinked a few times. Was this just another corruption thing, or...?

“I’m back, Angel Island!” Knuckles yelled, the odd tint in his voice gone. “Open up, baby!”

A light flashed in the twisting air, revealing a gap that split the air in half.

“W-whoa!” Silver exclaimed. “Is that how it works?”

“Yeah!” Knuckles laughed. “It’s hidden in a gap in time! Awesome, right?”

Ava blinked yet again. These kids... they certainly were something, weren’t they?

Silver flew the trio through the gap, and they were instantly greeted with an island floating above the ocean, overflowing with greenery. Ava quickly looked around. The city and the mainland were... not gone, but they looked strange, almost like they were coated in fog. Ava felt like she was dreaming. The breeze she had felt above the ocean was gone, too. Angel Island seemed to be like it’s own little world, isolated from the outside, but not quite at the same time. Silver flew them over the island.

“That way!” Knuckles instructed. “Over the mountains! It’s there!”

Ava wasn’t really focusing on Knuckles’ words. She was too focused on taking in the world around and especially beneath her. The forests looked so alive, there was a small desert with magnificent architectural achievements, a town built out of marble, and so on. The whole island was a dreamland, and Ava had a hard time believing something like this actually existed.

She looked up, and towards their destination. Structures made out of marble were floating amongst the clouds, forming what looked to be an entire city in the sky. Ava gasped a bit. The sight was unbelievably beautiful.

“Where to from here?” Silver asked. Knuckles had to think for a moment.

“Go up top, there should be an orb there!” the echidna instructed. Ava shook herself out of her amazement.

“Orb?” she asked.

“They can teleport you to places, and if I calibrate one correctly, I should be able to beam you up to the Death Egg,” Knuckles explained. “We just have to- there’s one!”

Silver flew them up to the platform, in the middle of which stood a red orb on a strange pedestal. Silver carefully landed the trio, and Knuckles rushed over to the sphere.

“This’ll take just a moment, hold on!” he assured, and began fiddling with it. Silver and Ava stood back, watching the echidna for a moment. Ava ruffled the fur on her head for a bit, and sighed.

“You okay?” Silver asked. Ava nodded.

“Yeah, it’s just... a lot to take in,” she admitted. “You know, telekinesis, floating islands hidden in weird pocket dimensions...”

“I think this is a gap in time, actually,” Silver observed. Ava raised her eyebrow.

“How do you know?”

“I’ve done my fair share of time-traveling, and you kind of... pick up the vibes of time when you do that?” Silver tried to explain. “I don’t know, you just start noticing when time around you is weird.”

“You’re a time-traveler?” Ava inhaled and raised her eyebrows. Things were getting weirder and weirder every minute now. Silver laughed a bit.

“Uh, yeah! I’m from the future, actually,” he said. “I came here for a visit, but then all this war stuff started to happen, and I couldn’t find the Chaos Emeralds so I could go home. I figured I might as well help out my friends while I was stuck here.”

“You’re not worried about making it back home?” Ava asked. Silver shook his head.

“Nah, I prefer to live in the moment these days. And we have bigger problems at hand right now.”

Ava was quiet for a moment.

“You say you’re from the future...” she began. “Does that mean that your world is... taken over by Eggman?”

Silver looked at the dog for a moment.

“Oh, no, it was fine,” he replied. Silver looked at the distance.

“Time is... strange. It’s not like a single, linear line. There are layers to it, a lot of them, and each layer has it’s own future. It’s kind of like a road that forks all the time; all the turns are next to each other and start from the same place, but all of them are different in their own ways.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“...sorta, anyway. It’s really hard to explain, and I don’t even fully understand it, but all I know is that just because my future is fine 200 years from now, doesn’t mean that your future is also going to be fine. Because your future is yet to be written.”

Ava nodded.

“I think I understand. Kind of, anyway.”

Silver smiled.

“Yeah, it’s complicated stuff.”

“All right!” Knuckles shouted out. “I’ve calibrated this bad boy!” He turned around to look at Silver and Ava.

“Ready to go on a space trip?”

“Will it teleport me outside the space sphere or inside of it?” Ava asked. Knuckles was quiet for a second, turned around to fiddle with the orb a bit more, and then faced the other two again.

“Inside,” the echidna smiled nervously. Ava raised an eyebrow, and Silver smirked.

“If you say so,” Ava rolled her eyes. She walked up to the orb, and then turned to Knuckles.

“What exactly should I investigate while I’m up there?”

“Well, anything, really,” Knuckles scratched his head. “Maybe try and figure out why the thing is up there in the first place? Just... go around and get a feel for it, I guess.” The echidna was quiet for a moment.

“You didn’t have a plan for this?” Silver asked. Knuckles reluctantly shook his head.

“Uh, yeah, not really.”

Ava smiled and shook her head. They were all kids, all right.

“Well, I’ll do my best,” she assured. She stepped on to the orb, and gave the boys a thumbs up. A light flashed around her, and beamed her up into the sky.

It was time to infiltrate the Death Egg.


	6. TAILS INTERMISSION - CHAOS 0

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tails Intermissions are the third POV in the story, providing more insight on lore, mechanics, and other events that would be overlooked if the focus remained solely on Infinite and Ava. At their core they replace Classic Sonic's stages and events, and add a bit more spice to the equation. Tails Intermissions can be skipped if one so desires, but doing so might result in mild confusion later on. And besides, we all know Tails deserved better than the treatment he was given in Forces, and I'm here to do exactly that with these little extra chapters.

Six months ago Red Bay City had been a blooming, busy city full of people and life. It had been an excellent tourist trap during summer, and held winter festivals that were entirely in their own league.

Red Bay City had been the kind of city you dreamed of living in.

  
And now it was nothing but rubble.

  
Tails emerged from behind a brick fence that had seen better days. He carefully maneuvered around the broken glass on the ground, and jumped over a large chunk of concrete from the nearby building that had come down six months ago. This is where all the destruction had started from.

Where Infinite had taken down Sonic the Hedgehog.

Tails was staring intensely at the MilesElectric in his hands, focusing on the readings on the screen. A significant trail of Chaos Energy loomed around in the city, and Tails had been tracking it down for the second day in a row. It wasn’t an easy job, with how finicky Chaos Energy tended to be, but the fox was determined. He was sure it would to lead him to Team Dark. They had disappeared about a month ago on a mission to investigate Infinite and his powers, all three of them, and Tails was the only one who could track them down. Sure, it had taken a lot of prep work and planning, but Tails was finally getting somewhere with his investigations.

The fox was so focused on the readings on his gadget that he nearly tripped over a metal part on the ground. Tails managed to balance himself with his double tails, however, and floated his way to the ground with grace. He looked at the thing he had stumbled on.

It was a handle from E-123 Omega’s shoulder.

Tails picked it up with haste and started scanning it. Team Dark had been here, there was no doubt of it. The trail of Chaos Energy must’ve been left behind by them. Maybe Shadow, the avid user of Chaos Control, had done so on purpose. Tails wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case. Shadow wasn’t stupid, after all, and considering the stakes he would’ve likely had a plan B in case things went wrong. Which they clearly had.

Suddenly a strange, distorted sound cut through the air. Tails turned around. At first he couldn’t see anyone. He had to have been imagining things. Or so he hoped.

“Who’s there?” he shouted. No one answered. Tails frowned, and turned back to MilesElectric. His eyes widened. There were strange readings in the area. The same kind he had recorded six months ago, when Sonic...

Tails turned around again.

“I know you’re out there!” he shouted, his voice trembling ever so slightly. “I’m not scared of you! Show yourself!”

Silence replied.

Tails bit his lip. He checked the readings again. The odd numbers were still present.

Something was nearby.

Before Tails could do another thing he was grabbed and thrown against the pile of concrete behind him. He let out a yelp as his back collided with the edge of a concrete chunk. That would certainly leave a bruise. Tails exhaled, gathering himself, and scouted out for the mercenary that had assaulted him.

His pupils shrank.

Chaos 0.

The fox inhaled sharply. How was Chaos here? No, that couldn’t have been Chaos. The readings weren’t Chaos Energy. What Tails was staring at wasn’t the real Chaos. It must’ve been another one of those dirty tricks that had emerged six months ago, along with the outbreak of Metal Sonics, and Dark Gaia creatures.

“You’re not real,” Tails spoke. “And I’m not afraid of you.”

The Chaos ignored the fox’s words, and began approaching him.

Tails looked around. There was concrete, some rocks, steel beams...

...and robot scrap.

The fox smirked.

He quickly stepped over to the scrap, and wrapped his tails around it. Within a few seconds he had flung the scrap directly at Chaos, splattering the foe into a glitching puddle of water.

Chaos 0 had always been a pushover, hadn’t he?

Tails grabbed the MilesElectric he had dropped, and scooted over to the puddle. The readings were getting fainter as the water evaporated, rather quickly in fact, and shortly disappeared all together.

Tails scratched his head. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but this did give him the confirmation that the adversaries hanging around were not the real deals. Perhaps they were just... illusions.

“...Illusions with a surprising amount of physical reality to them,” Tails muttered to himself. He picked up Omega’s handle from the ground, and looked at the readings again. The scan from the part had enhanced his previous readings, and the trail had strengthened. It was heading towards Green Hill.

That would be the fox’s next stop.


	7. Trespasser

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Smoking mention

In what felt to her like seconds the light around Ava faded, and she dropped down onto the ground. The gravity... felt off. The dog took in the nearby environment. She seemed to have landed into a storage room of some kind: crates and boxes surrounded her. The walls were made of steel, and looked cold and uninviting. A fluorescent light shone in the ceiling, illuminating the rather small space. Across the room laid a door, that was open by the tiniest amount. Someone had forgotten to lock it properly.

Ava rolled up the sleeve of her glove and clicked her communicator.

“Okay, I’m here,” she spoke quietly. “What exactly do I do?”

“Find information,” Amy responded back from the HQ. “I’ll be real with you, none of us have any idea why the Death Egg exists in the first place, let alone what it’s function is, so if you can find out literally anything about it that’d be swell.”

Ava blinked. Well, as she had established several times, these were kids she was working with. This wasn’t G.U.N, who had the resources to actually do some research beforehand on space orbs and the like.

“So I basically have free hands?” Ava confirmed.

“Yes,” Amy replied. “Good luck out there!”

“Thanks,” the dog said, ending the call. She took out her wispon, gripping it tightly, and sneaked up to the door. Ava listened for a bit.

Aside from the humming of the light in the room and the machinery on the station she heard nothing.

She carefully pushed the door more open, and sneaked into the hallway.

The walls everywhere were made of steel. Not a very stylistic choice. The opposing side of the hallway had a window that spread across the whole hall. Ava walked up to it, and looked outside. The Earth was beneath them, glowing in blue.

Ava felt like she should’ve felt something about the sight.

She didn’t.

Suddenly footsteps echoed in the hallway. Ava’s ear perked at the sound of it. She had to get out of there. She turned to the right, walking carefully and as quietly as she could away from the approaching footsteps. Running would’ve been a rookie mistake; she would’ve gotten discovered immediately. The longer she could keep her presence a secret the more she could accomplish.

Ava came across a sliding door. It opened quietly, much to her liking. She quickly stepped into the room, and situated herself behind a crate of some kind.

Her vision wavered with a red tint. Ava gritted her teeth, and searched her pockets for nicotine gum. She knew it wouldn’t help the corruption, but maybe it’d help her keep her cool a little longer.

The door slid open again. Some red creature with horns and an awful shade of turquoise for its hair walked in. It stopped immediately upon entry, and looked around.

Ava bit down on her gum, and exhaled through her nose. What was it waiting for? There was no way it would’ve seen her.

The creature walked closer to the crate Ava was hiding behind. The dog reached for her pockets again. She had a tranquilizer dart with her. It wouldn’t be that difficult to stab it into someone, and knock them out for a few hours.

The horned guest walked past the crate. Ava relaxed a bit. She couldn’t see the nuisance from her hiding spot, but she kept listening for it.

Minutes passed, but eventually the dog heard footsteps going to the opposite side of the room, before disappearing into the sliding of another door.

Ava carefully got up, and looked around the room.

There wasn’t much there. Much like in the hall before a window had taken over a wall in the room. There were a couple of computers about, but there was no way for Ava to actually access them. She was stealthy, not a tech wizard. Some potted plants tried to cheer up the atmosphere to no success whatsoever, and there were two doors leading to other parts of the space station.

Ava frowned. She had no idea which door the red creature had taken.

She noticed a vent above the other door.

She smirked. That could work.

Ava fired her grapple hook, latching onto the grate sealing the vent. She pulled, and without too much trouble the grate let go and dropped onto the floor with a clang. There was no time to waste, someone could’ve heard her. Ava grabbed the grate, fired off her grapple hook yet again, and pulled herself up to the vent. She scrambled up with way less grace then she would’ve liked to, and pulled the grate back to it’s rightful place. Immediately after she had pulled off her stunt a robot rushed into the room, looking around. Ava held her breath, as much as she would’ve liked to steady it. The robot looked puzzled as it found no intruder in the room after all. It then scuttled out of the room.

As soon as she heard the door slide close Ava exhaled. Out of habit she felt her pockets for cigarettes before remembering she had none with her. She cursed under her breath, trying to ease her addiction by telling herself smoking now that she was apparently working with a group of kids would’ve been a jerk move from her part. Ava slapped herself, and started crawling ahead in the vent.

***

Back in G.U.N. days they would’ve given Ava a map of the facility to help her out, and to make sure she wasn’t getting lost. But she wasn’t working with G.U.N. now, and she had no map to aid her. All she could do was hope that she’d come across some room that seemed to be of interest, and wasn’t crowded by people.

Ava had no luck for a while. Moving in the vent was slow as there was barely enough space for the dog to crawl around in, and the paths kept splitting up. She had no idea where she was heading. She prayed she was making some kind of progress.

The vent turned again, and Ava went along with it. Ahead was a grate, and the light from the room below shone through it, illuminating the vent in a shade of yellow. Ava raised her eyebrow. There was something strange about that light.

She crawled closer to investigate.

She reached the grate, and looked down into the room below. Below her were some more crates, a seemingly common sight on the Death Egg. Maybe they hadn’t arranged things in this section of it yet. A couple more potted plants were present, but Ava’s field of vision didn’t give her anything more than that. The room seemed to be empty, though, so Ava started to loosen the grate. She had to investigate that yellow light. It wasn’t natural.

The grate came loose, and Ava pulled it up to the vent to avoid making noise. She dropped down onto the crates with as much care as she could, and searched for the source of the light.

In the middle of the room stood a pedestal. On it laid a yellow gem, diamond-cut, yet Ava highly doubted that was a diamond at all.

It had to be a Chaos Emerald.

Ava dropped down from the crates and walked closer to the gem. Something about it was... compelling. Was that the nature of Chaos energy? Ava had heard rumors about it, how it supposedly called out to people, asking them to utilize it somehow to continue its eternal and never ending life cycle. To burn some of it, take it to yourself, and offer your own Chaos energy in return. They had been only rumors, though. And yet there she was, entranced by this lemon gem, completely ignoring any repercussions that could occur from lifting it from it’s resting spot.

She landed her hand on the emerald.

Immediately a loud alarm blared through the room. Ava knocked the gem on the floor as she rushed to hold her ears, snapping out of whatever she had been in a few seconds ago. What had she been thinking?! Of course there would be safety measures! Of course it had to have been trapped!

There was no time to dwell on mistakes. Ava snatched the gem from the floor, and shoved it in her pocket. Eggman couldn’t have it.

The door to the room opened, and robots rushed in. The alarm was ringing in Ava’s ears as she pulled out her wispon and fired it. The electric whip ran through the herd of robots, slicing them in half. The surviving individuals looked panicked, unsure of how to proceed about the situation. Ava used it to her advantage and rushed out of the room.

Her vision was starting to shatter.

“Ava?! Ava do you read me?!”

The dog reached for her communicator. The lights flashing in the hallway she was running through, with the alarm still going on, were overloading her.

“It’s fine,” she breathed into the communicator. “I screwed up, they’re after me, but I’m okay.”

“Oh god, just... get out of there,” Amy tried to instruct the dog through her rising anxiety. “I’m sure there has to be like, some kind of shuttles or escape pods or something on that thing that can get you back to Earth, just... yeah, find them, okay?”

“Yeah,” Ava replied, ending the call and continuing her escape. She couldn’t see very clearly. She tried to pull out her MP3 player, but the cord of her earbuds was scrambled into a mess. She was getting extremely anxious.

A group of robots was running towards her. Ava looked to her right, saw a door, and practically slammed herself into it to get away.

She ran into a large hall. Her vision was tinted red, it was getting more and more unclear, and she couldn’t make out her surroundings. The alarm was still blaring, the lights were still flashing. There was no end to it.

Ava started to forget why she was there.

She had to get out. That’s all she could remember anymore.

But everything was too much.

She took a turn, but ran into something, and collapsed onto the floor. She had no energy to get up. It was too overwhelming. She couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t think. She wanted to scream. She wanted to-

Someone grabbed her hand.

“Hey, hey, you okay?” a worried voice asked. Ava opened her eyes as much as she could. She couldn’t figure out who was standing in front of her. Their green eyes shone through the corruption.

Ava couldn’t respond.

The figure’s head jerked to the right, as if they had heard a sound.

“Man, there’s no time for this,” they muttered, and picked Ava up from the floor.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Ava held on to the figure the best she could. They were moving fast, incredibly fast. It was as if time itself slowed down around them.

It seemed familiar somehow.

Ava couldn’t remember why.

“Hey, cool, there’s an escape pod!” the figure exclaimed. “Looks like the Egghead prepared it for us, too. How nice of him.”

They chuckled, and hopped in. There wasn’t much room, but it would have to do. The figure placed Ava onto a bench of some kind, closed the door, and jumped up to the control panel. They didn’t seem to know which button to press.

“Uh, you know how to operate escape pods by any chance?” they asked. The blaring and the lights were gone, and Ava was starting to come back from her personal hell. She swallowed.

“Let me see,” she whispered, and crawled up to the control panel. It took her a minute, but she got her bearings from it. It was, in fact, a way simpler design than anything she had seen before.

“If that one’s red, you press that,” she instructed, still whispering. “Sorry, I... I can’t really... see well right now...”

“Hey, that’s cool!” the figure smiled, as far as Ava could tell anyway, and hit the button. The pod started to shake, and suddenly jerked forward, firing itself into space and towards the Earth at great velocity.

“Oh yeah, home here I come!” the figure sighed. They were quiet for a moment.

“Wait, what’s your name? I never got that,” they asked.

“Ava,” the dog coughed.

“Nice name,” the figure complimented. “I’m Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!”

Ava felt like that name should’ve meant something to her.

She couldn’t remember what, though.

Perhaps it would come back to her in about 20 minutes or so.


End file.
